The Lamp Room

Excellent save, good to see it is going to be preserved and at least the council let you save it.
How do you go about fixing cracks in these columns? Will you be having to coat it in something to prevent further water ingress into the concrete when it is finished?

Many thanks, yes it is a good save. I've actually got a Stanton concrete column on my drive planted with concrete ladder bars, counterweight concrete over-arm and a nice old merc lantern on it. Same with that as with this one; on the rare occasions when a crack appears, I use a cement mix with very little sand in it so it bonds strong. I also tend to put a little exterior PVA glue in the mix for flexibility and extra stick and some brown or grey water-based paint to colour match the concrete column - not much different from the prop making I do for TV really. I spatula it on to the crack and then push it in using a thin piece of metal and a lot of patience to compress it as much as possible in to the crack and re-bond the whole thing together. Re waterproofing, I've never really bothered beyond repairing cracks; if the cracks are repaired, water ingress towards the internal metal rebars isn't really an issue, and its important to allow concrete like this to 'breathe' and get rid of moisture, which isn't so easy if you water proof the columns because a seal keeps anything trapped in as well as keeping water out, however I do monitor for it because rusting metal (rebar) tends to expand and this is what cracks the external concrete out - as does frozen water soaked in to the concrete, hence my long term plan is to own a high shed to display them stood up while also out of the elements, until then they are generally stored horizontally in dry storage with good air circulation to keep them out of the elements. One secret ingredient you can use to shine them up and give them some degree of waterproofing without going too far is by rubbing them down with boiled linseed oil - this for example makes engineering brick look particularly good, but with cast concrete you have to strike a balance and think ahead because too much oil then might cause issues with cement bonding on future crack repairs. Its all a balancing act really.

I'm mainly thinking ahead; we're throwing these things away now and seeing them as common and uninteresting, but make no mistake - these concrete's are the Victorian cast irons of the future; very few of them saved and they are actually fascinating really when you think of modern columns. As far as I am aware there are only two other collectors who own concretes in the whole country - although I hope there are more people saving them that I don't know about!. They're not actually that heavy - nor difficult to move if you're careful. One day, long after I'm dead, I hope they'll be in a museum somewhere. That's the main reason I've saved them - for future generations to see in a museum as what was once part of British street furniture. No one wants them now, but give it twenty years and someone will find them fascinatingly different. My next thing is to try and save a concrete bus stop I think and store it flat pack with assembly instructions for whichever museum eventually takes it. There's still a few knocking about here and there. I might start looking to save one ...watch this space lol!

Hello Peter,

I rarely write here.
It is very pleasing to see your success. All your efforts with the emails and phone calls have paid off. Very good.

I have often experienced the opposite with such projects: Lack of interest on the part of the municipality, bureaucracy and so on.
Therefore: thumbs up !

@Kev: it's certainly a pity in a way that it was the last survivor.
Still, better one saved than all in the scrap.

Best regards

Olav

Hello Peter,

I rarely write here.
It is very pleasing to see your success. All your efforts with the emails and phone calls have paid off. Very good.

I have often experienced the opposite with such projects: Lack of interest on the part of the municipality, bureaucracy and so on.
Therefore: thumbs up !

@Kev: it's certainly a pity in a way that it was the last survivor.
Still, better one saved than all in the scrap.

Best regards

Olav

Hi Olav,

Thanks for your time in replying. Yes I understand how frustrating that is - I've had the same experience many times over the years. I was just lucky with the timing of this and the staff running things in that particular moment. Somehow, everything aligned to save it. All I can say is keep going and aiming for the stuff you want - when you get a result it makes it all the more rewarding.

Hello Peter,

you're absolutely right. The effort was really worth it in some cases. It was successful once with a local authority, i.e. a municipal administration.

With private owners (mostly industrial companies) it was often much easier to be allowed to dismantle an old fixture (for a small donation or payment),

I had the fewest failures there. It is good if a few typical fixtures survive in private collections.